Shattered
by the evil mumu-san
Summary: James Potter makes an attempt to anonymously tutor Lucius, and abysmal DADA student and a very god liar, in the process he finds himself betrayed- and mistaken for the ancient, invisible ghost of Salazar Slytherin? (SLASH!sad ending)
1. Default Chapter

It was early in the morning. The sun had yet to rise, and the world took on a muted pink-and-grey tinge. Frost formed overnight crunched beneath the expensive leather boots of the blonde man as he walked determinedly through the imposing iron gates of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Striding towards the brick entrance he met with several other members of the board of governors. Nodding curtly at his fellows the blonde man continued into the building, meeting the Headmaster just inside the Hall.  
  
Not many students knew that the board met each morning before the start of every term. It wasn't particularly relevant, the meeting, but it was traditional, and many said it dated back to the times when the founders all convened and went over last minute plans at the start of term. For whatever reason the tradition was in place, it was in place firmly, and it was expected that each member of the Hogwarts teaching staff and each member of the board of governors meet for a ridiculously early breakfast and awkward, stilted, small talk each year.  
  
The blonde man just as soon wished it wouldn't and didn't, but it wasn't solely up to him, and he didn't want to explain why he was so very against coming, as most thought it was a chore, but not such a terrible one. Usually he made some excuse not to come and no one really minded, except for those who did, and they didn't matter. This year was his son's first year, however, and he felt it was his duty to make an appearance.  
  
Sitting upright and tense in an ornate chair, the blonde man gritted his teeth and made one-word answers to all inquiries after his family and home.  
  
After what seemed like a decade but was only two hours the blonde man got out of his chair, absentmindedly smoothing his robes, out of habit rather than necessity, and strode once more out of the gates. Only until he had reached his own hearth did he allow the tight-lipped smile to fall from his features.  
  
Marching quickly to his study and locking the door behind him he reached for the decanter on the desk, fumbling slightly, and poured some of the rich warm liquid into a delicately spun glass before knocking it back desperately. Visiting his old school always had such an effect on him, and his family knew enough to steer clear of his study until he emerged.  
  
Unfortunately the brandy was too little to late to keep him from his memories, and, first tugging at the corners of his mind like forgotten lullabies, they finally swept him up on a melody of painful remembrance.  
  
***  
  
".And so the best time to hunt the Vampire would have to be during sunlight hours."  
The clear decisive voice of the redhead petered off and the boy with the square rimmed spectacles sighed quietly in relief. It was all true, what she had said, but also very, very boring when you knew it already.  
  
"Very good Miss Evans." The teacher, a young, ill-kemp and hassled looking man, said from the front of the room as he shuffled through the mess of papers on his desk. "Would anyone.err--hang on. Ah, yes." He pulled a rumpled sheet from near the bottom of one of the many stacks and then looked up, beaming, at the rest of the class. "Would anyone like to elaborate?"  
  
A pale arm rose in the air, and the teacher, looking flustered, pointed to its owner. "Yes, Mr., ah, Malfoy?" The pale boy nodded solemnly in acknowledgement before standing up and addressing the class.  
  
"While Evans made some excellent points." here he paused and sneered slightly, as if he very much doubted she had, but was being polite. "I'd like to make a few of my own."  
  
The red-head next to the boy with the glasses made an angry huffing sound, and the boy patted her arm absentmindedly and affectionately, never taking his eyes off the blonde.  
  
And the blonde was well worth watching. He was spouting utter rubbish, of course, not a single fact he stated was true, and most didn't even have to do with the subject at hand, but the classroom was captivated. Many students were taking notes, looking up at him occasionally with admiration in their eyes. The teacher seemed to be second-guessing his knowledge, looking first at the rumpled sheet in his hand and then at the boy addressing his class, with a slight frown. Even the red-headed girl next to him was beginning to doubt her careful research, looking between the pale boy and the notes on her desk made out in her clean neat writing.  
  
Only the boy with the spectacles realized what the blonde was doing; and only he knew that if you went to any library with a list of the book "sources" that the information the blonde was basing his theories on you would come up empty handed, just as only he understood why the blonde boy did what he did.  
  
He came alive while he was lying. His eyes lit up and the usual cold grey became misted, his white, soft hands became animated and fluttered with a language all their own, and his tales, the boy with the glasses could tell, were all made up on the spot, seamless and perfect upon first creation like nothing else he knew of. There was flawlessness to the entire procedure that kept him glued in his seat, silent and watchful and the blonde boy spun out his outrageous ideas to his captive audience.  
  
".And so that is why it is in fact best to hunt a Vampire during the autumn at garlic harvest season." Abruptly the spell was broken and the whole class became alive once again; some clapped for the pale boy, others, like Lily, continued to scribble down last minute notes. The teacher wrote down the reading on the board just in time as the bell rang, and the boy with the spectacles reached behind him to help his friend Remus in trying to get the only other person who had remained unmoved by the pale boys speech, one Sirius Black, to wake up.  
  
***  
  
The blonde boy slid from his seat and headed to his common room, tying his curtain of pale hair at his neck with a black satin cord form his mother on the way. Since his father had died his mother had urged him to grow it long, and for her he had, though it made him look prettier than most of the girls in his house.  
  
Reaching his common room the pale boy stated his password and walked inside, only to find himself entering pandemonium. Students were running about shouting completely nonsensical statements. Grabbing one of the said students by the back of the shirt the pale boy asked calmly and politely what the matter was.  
  
"Well, you see Lu-." The blonde boy's lip curled and the terrified lowerclassmen quickly amended- "Mr. Malfoy, sir. Miss Black was talking to Miss Parkinson when BAM! The coffee table just upends on her, like someone pushed it. Like.like a ghost did it." The boy trailed off at the look on his senior's face.  
  
Speaking in a low hiss, anger palpable in his voice the pale boy addressed the milling masses in the common room. "Did it ever occur to any of you idiots that someone might have levitated the table so it fell onto Miss Black?"  
  
The entire common room froze.  
  
"But, but.who would do such a thing?" Someone near the back of the room asked. The entire house knew that Miss Narcissa Black was only slightly less frightful than Mr. Lucius Malfoy when angered. It was what made them such an excellent pair.  
  
"Who indeed." The blonde boy said, adopting a slightly more normal tone and grabbing some random lower years sweater to help dry the soaked, forgotten and fuming Narcissa. "It may have well just upended. If someone did do it-" here the blonde boy turned from attending to Narcissa and fixed his schoolmates with a menacing glare -"Then I intend to find out who and make sure they think more carefully next time. And for god's sake there is no such thing as the invisible ghost of Salazar Slytherin, I made him up on Halloween. Even if his ghost did haunt the school we would be able to see him, and do you really think he would bother us? He would be after the Gyffindor's."  
  
The whole room had the decency to look embarrassed and continued with what they had been doing pre-chaos.  
  
Turning to the large boys that flanked him on either side the blonde boy snapped "And you two, if Miss Black in ever left unattended to in such a manner again there will be hell to pay." The two large boys nodded stupidly and the blonde girl gave the pale boy a smile full of sweet, false, gratitude.  
  
"Yes," said a sarcastic voice and a dark, smirking form appeared, "Is no- one concerned for our prima donna?"  
  
Severus Snape moved from the shadows of an alcove nearby.  
  
"Severus," the pale boy greeted, brow furrowing "Just what are you doing here?"  
  
"Oh," the thin boy replied pushing oily black hair behind one ear, and hefting a large book with one hand. "Just catching up on some reading." He smirked and wandered lazily out of the common room. Too late to call him back, the pale boy realized his mistake as he sensed the girl next to him go stiff with fury.  
  
"He! It was him, I know it was him! He upended the table at me Lucius and you didn't even do anything but greet him, it was to dark to read in there and you know it, you always notice those sorts of things you."  
  
"Narcissa, dear."  
  
"Don't you "Narcissa" me, Lucius Theodoric Malfoy. I'm leaving, and I don't want to see you until much, much later. Don't bother coming by tonight, I'm in no mood to let you copy my homework you ungrateful little.Arrg!" And with a swish of expensive black fabric the blonde girl was gone.  
  
"Well," said the pale blonde boy. "That did not go as planned." 


	2. A oneshot and a note

Erm? If anyone who read this or any of my other stories is still about – hi!

This is a quick one-shot loosely connected with chapter one of Shattered. Take it either as a stand-alone or as another, later piece of the story as it pleases you. To be honest, basically, it simply allows me to write the sort of Lucius/James/Severus interaction that I wanted to write when I first conceived of the plotline (The main story was going to be Lucius/James, but I wanted Snape to play a pivotal role in the story, and to essentially pwn everyone while being miserable and unhappy. I think this comes across.). But yes, it demonstrates some of the original intent of Shattered in that no one is really a good guy or entirely a bad guy (Narcissa came across rather badly in my first chapter, which wasn't particularly my intention, but c'est la vie.), everyone has multiple things going on that actually contribute to a plot outside of romantic entanglement, none of what anyone is up to is any good, there is plenty of creepy stalkerish obsession to go around, Lucius is not instantly gay and lusting after his enemies upon his first boikiss, and people have what might resemble facets. Perhaps I convey this, perhaps I do not.

Anyway, a few days ago I was mailed by a reviewer who asked if I wanted to finish any of my fics. My answer, as I am reiterating here, was no. I'm not inclined, now or in the foreseeable future, to continue with them, and I feel that my writing has improved enough so that I can't be happy with them stylistically anyway. S/he asked if s/he might take the first chapter of Shattered and write (her I believe, and the "s/he" is getting tiresome) own story from it, I said she could, although please bear in mind that any direction she takes it is her own creative vision and that I have no real input or involvement in whatever storyline she pursues. I believe you can find whatever continuation she is doing under the penname "Dark-Saiyan-Angel". I wanted to extend the same offer to everyone who comes across this, in the off chance that they might be interested in this or any other fics of mine – if you want to do something with my work here thus far, by all means take what I've produced that you like and make it your own. If, and only if, it pleases you, comment here and let me know what you are taking, simply because I am curious as to what people might do with my ancient, silly fic bits.

And so, without further ado, here is the short, demi-apology one-shot that will be, I think, my last continuation of Shattered. Enjoy! (Also, excuse my clumsy pagebreaks, was most uncooperative in formatting them.)

6666

Lucius Malfoy had the regrettable habit of being absolutely unable to think clearly in situations that came upon him unexpectedly. He compensated for it by being prepared at all times for every conceivable eventuality, but, every once in a while, something slipped through the proverbial cracks of his careful preparation, and caught him by hideous, unpleasant surprise.

His first though, upon being shoved violently up against the dirty, disgusting door of the boy's loo on the second floor was that James Potter smelled like a boy (or at least like wool, sweat, and the sausage from breakfast). You could only smell him from right up close, like they were now, and it was funny that he smelled because he didn't look smelly, but he smelled like boy.

It was a completely unhelpful thought, and Lucius would have kicked himself for it had he not been sure that Potter would do so for him, and soon.

What James Potter did instead was as unwelcome as it was unexpected. James looked down at Lucius, his face obscuring everything else in the room from such a close range, smiled a smile as lopsided and goofy as his slightly askew glasses, and said, "Hallo" before diving in to crush his mouth against Lucius's in what might have been a desperate and very amateurish kiss. It was rather shit as kisses went, the small, impassive part of Lucius's mind not currently panicking noted, more like he was fighting Lucius with his lips, really.

The first thing out of Lucius's mouth was, "mmf." The first thing into his mouth was Potter's tongue, which seemed, with the rest of loathsome James Potter, to take Lucius's incoherent protestation as an invitation to initiate further intimacies on Lucius's person.

With the introduction of the shocking, wet texture of tongue (also redolent of sausage underneath a strong and very peculiar herbal taste), Lucius's brain finally began to work properly.

He bit down hard and the reached for the wand carefully concealed in his right sleeve. It was Potter's turn to "mmf," and the boy pulled away abruptly, touched his tongue and came away with blood on his finger. He looked up to find Lucius's wand between his eyes.

Potter, clearly not yet through with upsetting people's mornings, then said "Christ, Malfoy, that bloody hurt," in a deeply reproachful voice, looking for all the world as if he considered the biting, rather than the kissing, the unusual element in their interaction.

Lucius, if for only a moment, wondered if he had somehow awoken this morning in the alternate reality in which kissing in bathrooms and not hurting James Potter were for him de rigueur. For a full second he stared blankly at the stunningly audacious boy in front of him before finding his voice.

"Is the pain bad Potter? Please, allow me to break both of your kneecaps. Perhaps you'll be distracted."

The Potter boy had the nerve to smile disarmingly and lift both his hands in a placating gesture. "Now, now Malfoy, no harm in a little kiss." He tilted his head in a practiced motion some of the lower year girls called "charming", "Are all Slytherins such mincing virgins?"

Lucius was unmoved. He decided he had nothing to loose, at least not with a Gryffindor, by approaching the situation as he saw it from point-blank. "What did you give me?"

Potter looked slightly puzzled. "Pardon?"

Lucius shook his head impatiently and lowered his wand arm to point directly at James Potter's crotch. "I assume you kissed me in order to get some foul potion into my system. Your mistake was thinking that such a thing was in any respect not highly suspicious. You've lost, so tell me now: what was it? Please speak quickly, or I'll be forced to accio your testicles."

James, damn him, looked amused and leaned back against the bathroom wall he had just previously pushed Lucius against, resting an indolent hand against a rather elaborate belt buckle in a gesture that more framed than guarded his groin. He smirked and regarded Lucius through sleepy, half-lidded eyes. "Honestly, Malfoy, don't sell yourself so short. At least consider that, if I had slipped you anything, I would have ingested it too, wouldn't I have?" Potter paused, as if to give Lucius a moment to think this over, before continuing in a more self-satisfied tone, "I just wanted to kiss you. Although if I had known you'd react so violently I might have thought again. My tongue is still bleeding." He reached into his mouth and then raised a freshly bloody finger up for inspection. Lucius felt nauseous. James winked at him. "It was worth it though."

Lucius's grip on his wand tightened. He would have hexed Potter there if he hadn't been possessed with the need to know -

"'Just wanted to' nothing, Potter. Why on earth would you do such a stupid, disgusting thing?"

James looked only slightly offended. "Well, you didn't seem to mind until you bit me, you cannibal. You just held still and let me go at it."

Lucius sputtered. "I held still because I was overcome with shock and dread, you complete idiot, not because I wanted you to assault me. For Merlin's sake! Deer freeze in wandlight, do you go ramming your tongue into their orifices?"

Potter, to Lucius's abject horror, blushed and began to stutter something about this one time with this really gorgeous doe during the full moon when he hadn't felt quite himself. Lucius forgot about holding randy, assault-happy Gryffindors at wandpoint and covered his ears, before speaking quickly over Potter's rambling,

"I don't care, never mind, shut up. I can't hear you, I don't want to hear you, and I'm going to pretend this never happened. In fact, I may invest in memory charms. This has been entirely too surreal, and I am going back to my dormitory to lie down. If you touch me again I will divest you of your privates and then your life. Good day."

He turned on his heel and headed quickly for the exit, making the mistake of letting his hands fall from his ears for long enough to hear Potter, voice full of maliciously delighted laughter, yell, "Sorry Malfoy, what with the hair and all the poncing about and whatnot you do I thought you wouldn't mind."

Lucius, without a backwards glance, sent a curse behind him into the bathroom. He heard Potter's muted yell with a great deal of satisfaction. Painful, puss filled warts and boils would suit the toad.

6666

He made it halfway down through the dungeons before he began to feel strange. Panting, he leaned one-handed against the wall.

At that moment, as if he could smell the misfortune of others, the person Lucius least wanted to see came skulking down the corner.

Severus Snape looked as oily and shifty as he always did. He fixed Lucius with a supremely self-satisfied smile.

"Well, well, Lucius Malfoy, you look… unwell."

Lucius gritted his teeth. There was definitely something wrong with him. Damn Potter! Damn himself, too, for being so stupid. He had tasted the potion and he had still been so eager to get away he fallen for the line that idiot had given him. But what had it been? The only potions that caused his current symptoms and that could be administered as the one now effecting him inevitably had been (Lucius shuddered privately at the thought) were at a level far beyond James Potter or any of his Gryffindor friends, save perhaps the nasty red haired Mudblood (who didn't seem the type to brew knock-out potions for the troublemakers of her house). There were only a few others in the school with such skill, including… but, surely not, and certainly not in collusion with Potter of all people.

Lucius realized he had taken far too long to answer. He looked up, determined to make a good show of it, and began to back unsteadily down the corridor. It was only through years of practice that he was able to smile with any apparent sincerity at the boy in front of him.

"Severus, I assure you, I've never been better."

Snape, if possible, looked even more self-satisfied, and began to follow him, matching Lucius's unsteady pace step for step as if in mockery.

"Really? Perhaps, now that you mention it, you aren't doing so poorly. In fact, if you were to ask me, I'd say that, more than anything, you look freshly kissed. Blushing, panting, swollen lips…"

Lucius felt his face heat as he began to full on panic. Snape somehow knew, and he couldn't feel his feet. He met Severus's eyes and ground out, "I assure you Severus, I have long been without the ability to blush, and I most definitely am not doing so now."

Severus played with the cuff of one sleeve, dangling his wand idly in the other hand- when had he drawn it? How could Lucius have been negligent enough to miss it? Stupid! – before drawling in that lazy, nasty way of his, "Well, you weren't, blushing that is, until I mentioned the subject. What's the matter Lucius, Potter got your tongue?"

Lucius desperately tried for his wand, but his hands were slow and sluggish and his vision had begun to blur. He moved to the wall for support, and then, still unable to get his feet under him, slid slowly down it. He looked up at the black blob that was Severus.

"Halfblood. Traitor," he spat, and then, as if spreading out from Severus himself, the darkness took his vision.

6666

Severus sneered as Lucius finally went completely limp. Trust a Malfoy to bring bloodlines and embarrassing family history into what was purely a matter of business and good politics. He reached down, despite his previous bravado he couldn't help marveling privately at his own daring (who would have though he would ever be in a position to put hands on Lucius Malfoy, of all people?) and retrieved a small locket on a thin chain form one of the inner pockets of the blonde boy's robe – his real prize in this messy business, though he doubted Lucius would miss it, or that his housemate even knew the significance of what he had held. His hands moving seemingly of their own volition, he took a moment to smooth a few blonde strands away from the pale face. Really, Lucius was too lovely for his own good. Look what it had gotten him into now.

Starting as if coming to himself from a trance, Severus quickly tucked the locket into his own robes and performed (what he hoped) was a flawless memory charm – he had been practicing, but they had only just begun to learn about them officially in class. He finished just in time, and straightened fully upright just as James Potter, bearing the marks of what looked like several nasty warts hastily spelled away, came thudding down the corridor.

Potter froze when he sighted Severus, who gave him his best sneer.

"What, Potter? We're not feeling squeamish about our bedfellows already, are we?"

Potter wrinkled his nose in apparent protest either of Snape in general or of the habitually obscene way he phrased his sentences.

"I'm fine, but it took your stupid potion long enough to start working," James raked a hand through his hair (ignoring Snape's disgusted eye roll at the gesture) and sighed, "I suppose I owe you then." He withdrew a small, clinking velvet bag from the inside of his robes and threw it at Severus, who, lacking seeker reflexes, only barely caught it. James made no effort to hide his smirk.

"There are potions that induce unconsciousness in the drinker that work far more quickly, but you insisted that there be no unfortunate side effects. This is the best thing anyone could do under the circumstances." Snape looked more than slightly put out by the criticism and began counting the galleons in the bag.

"I'm surprised I had to insist!" James said rather indignantly. "He's your friend, not mine."

Snape's face remained inscrutable. The two boys were silent, save for the clink-clinking of coins from the bag as Severus counted, until James abruptly clapped his hands together and whipped out his wand, levitating Lucius neatly in the narrow corridor. For a moment, as the blonde boy floated helplessly, Snape looked like he wanted to stop James. Instead, likely more in a futile attempt at stalling the Gryffindor than anything else, he asked, "Why did you administer the potion in the manner you did?"

James tutted at him. "Why must you spoil this perfectly reasonable transaction with personal questions? I don't go asking you why you go off selling the boy you love to people you hate without so much as finding out what they plan to do with him, do I?" The calm, light tone of James's voice was utterly at odds with the cruel, delighted grin that slightly distorted his otherwise boyish features. At the shocked, raw expression that for a moment slipped across Snape's features his smile widened.

"You though it wasn't obvious? Merlin, I'd love to know why you do the things you do, you utterly fucked, oily little sod. But let's keep this business Snivellus." His contempt was utter and apparent, and Snape's fingers twitched as if he would draw his wand in response. For a moment nearly tangible hatred crackled between the two. Then the moment passed.

James drew his invisibility cloak from some inner part of his robe and draped it with a flourish over Lucius's floating body before heading, invisible cargo in tow, back down the corridor.

Snape, frozen still as if he had been petrified, watched them go until they turned the corner. Then he exhaled sharply and took the locket out of his pocket, rubbing it as if he found some absentminded comfort in its presence. Severus then re-tucked the locket into the pocket of his robe with exaggerated care, before violently punching the stone wall, bloodying his knuckles. He regarded his injured hand impassively.

Finally he sighed deeply, muttered, "worth it, it was worth it," as if trying to convince himself of something, and walked slightly unsteadily in the opposite direction of the one James had taken Lucius, down further into the dungeons.

6666

Fin.

So, there you have it, that is all the continuation there is to this. I hope that wasn't too terribly awful and disappointing. Happy writing and reading to you all!


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